


Coney Island

by LostAthenian



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Folk of the Air - Holly Black
Genre: Coney Island, F/M, Sassy Percy Jackson, ignoring the fact that Fae don’t have to use the bathroom, sassy Cardan, slight QON spoilers, tbh idrk what this is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:41:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24659281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostAthenian/pseuds/LostAthenian
Summary: Two worlds collide, and needless to say... it doesn’t quite go well.(Originally posted to Wattpad)
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Jude Duarte/Cardan Greenbriar
Comments: 11
Kudos: 93





	Coney Island

**Author's Note:**

> For the sake of plot pls ignore the fact that fae don’t need to use the restroom :)

Jude first notices them while she and Cardan are playing some game called _Water Racer_. It's a silly thing, really; you're essentially shooting water into a hole for no other reason than to waste water, but Cardan insists on getting the "full experience," whatever that means. That's not what really bothers her though.

What bothers her is the couple sitting to Cardan's right. There's a lean boy, probably about their age, who looks like he could be Cardan's tan, green-eyed twin with straight hair. He has the same impish smirk that screams _Danger_! and the same regal face and sharp jawline that commands authority. The girl sitting next to him is no different; she carries herself protectively, like she's always looking out for something, her cloudy gray eyes scanning the area every three seconds. She's wearing denim cutoffs and white t-shirt, nothing out of the ordinary, and she has her blonde curls tossed into a ponytail, although they brush her high cheekbones ever so often. They're attractive, she'll admit, and they seem normal. But still, what concerns her is the fact that the guy keeps shooting Cardan a wide-eyed glance. Jude would be fine with it if he was looking at his face; she knows her husband is handsome, especially amongst all these mortals. But he's not looking at Cardan's face. He's looking slightly behind him. At Cardan's _tail_.

Jude takes a problem with this, because she made sure Cardan had glamoured his tail and his pointy ears before they left Vivi's apartment. She took all precautions, securing them actual mortal money, dressing him in mortal clothes (i.e. a red and black plaid flannel and dark jeans), even making sure they dismounted their ragwort ponies a safe distance away. She can't even see Cardan's tail, so she isn't sure what the guy is looking at.

Jude takes a deep breath. She and Cardan came here to relax, to get away from their royal duties to Elfhame, not to obsess over anyone who looks over her husband strangely. Maybe the couple just wants to invite Cardan into a threesome, who knows. She growls lightly as she loses the game to the guy ogling her husband, to which Cardan just laughs and kisses her temple lightly. 

"Ever the sore loser, my queen," he chuckles, earning a sharp jab to his ribs.

Jude makes to reply, but is cut off when she overhears the blonde girl scoff, "You totally cheated Seaweed Brain." 

Her boyfriend winks at her, then shrugs, replying, "What they don't know can't hurt them. Besides, I really wanted that stuffed penguin!"

"Are you okay?" 

Jude stops eavesdropping on the strange couple to meet Cardan's gaze, which is filled with concern. "Yeah," she answers, smiling tightly. "I'm fine. Just... bummed that I lost."

Cardan looks at her strangely, but hums and flashes her that trouble maker grin. "Come dearest, I want to explore more of this Isle of Cones."

Jude rolls her eyes at his antics. "It's Cone- _y_ Island, Cardan."  
________________________________________  
The next time Jude notices them, she and Cardan are playing ring toss. Honestly, she only notices them because the girlfriend is playing as well. She's good. _Really_ good. She manages to land every ring, meanwhile Jude struggles to land every other one. It must be rigged.

Cardan laughs at her concentration, then subsequent frustration when the rings bounce off the bottle.

"Would you like to try, _oh High King_?" Jude purses her lips, trying to hide her embarrassment. All her time training under Madoc and working with the Court of Shadows, and she's bested by some mortal girl at some mortal game.

Cardan smirks at her, brushing a strand of hair behind her hair gently. "I think, fair Jude, that I would rather watch you fail than attempt to best you." He's mocking her, but there's a soft smile on his lips as he speaks, and she can't help but feel her stomach flip as he cards his ringed fingers through her hair. 

Suddenly, the hairs on the back of her neck are standing up again. She turns her head, oh so slightly, to see the strange couple looking at Cardan again. Specifically, Cardan's mortal lookalike; his sea green eyes are wary as he flicks his gaze back and forth from Cardan and his girlfriend.

"What's wrong my love?" Cardan leans into her, disguising her talking as a couple's embrace.

"The couple behind me keeps looking at you. I've never seen them before, so they may be spies against the crown. Either way, I don't like it." She keeps her voice low, trying to make it look like she's whispering sweet nothings in his ear.

Cardan nips at her earlobe, sending heat rushing through her. Damn him, she thinks. "We'd best be taking our leave then, huh?"

The look he sends her suggests there's more than one reason he wants to go home. Jude nods, her knees feeling weak, then remembers they have one more stop to go.

"Wait, we said we were going to see the Statue of Liberty."

Cardan flashes her that pouty face he always pulls before he starts to whine. "But-"

"No buts. I will not let some strange couple ruin my vacation with my husband." Her voice is final.

Cardan sighs in his dramatic way, then grins lazily at her. "Fine. Allow me to use the restroom, and then I will card my queen off to see this green lady she so obsesses over."

Jude rolls her eyes, giving him a smack for good measure, before dragging him off to find a bathroom.  
________________________________________  
Cardan tries hard not to scoff when he finally finds a bathroom. It smells like the stables back in Hollow Hall, and there are little strips of toilet paper littered about the floor. The fluorescent lights flicker above him on the ceiling, each one casting a dim light that threatens to die out with each flicker.

As Cardan allows himself to be relieved at what the mortals call a urinal, he registers that the door reopens to allow another person in. Two stalls down from him is the spy Jude expressed her concerns about, and he allows himself to admit, he does seem strange. He can tell he's (awkwardly) trying to keep his gaze away from him, but Cardan catches him looking his way more than once.

To hell with it, he figures. He's a king.

"And what might you be looking at?" Cardan snaps, making sure to put some bite in his tone.

To his surprise, the guy doesn't seem fazed. Instead, he quirks a dark brow, and retorts, "Are you serious?"

"Of course I'm serious. What might you find so interesting? Would you like to come over here and take a look for yourself?"

The guy makes a sour face. "Dude, you have a _tail_."

Cardan feels a mini shock roll through him, but he knows how Jude would feel if he ruined their vacation, so he squares back his shoulders and fills his voice with as much glamour as he can. "No, I do not. You will leave this bathroom and forget any conversation you had with me, and you will remove the notion of a tail from your mind."

The guy looks confused, like all mortals do when they are glamoured. But then he says, "What the hell are you talking about?"  
________________________________________  
Annabeth is standing outside the men's restroom, forcing a bored look onto her face. Really, she's trying to check out the girl next to her.

She didn't notice them at first, until Percy pointed them out to her at the Water Racer game (which Percy totally cheated at). The girl looks normal; she's roughly the same height and build as Annabeth, with fair skin and long, auburn hair that stretches to her waist. She thinks she could take her, but she's more concerned about Percy, who's followed this girl's male companion into the bathroom. The male companion with a tail and pointed ears.

She told him it was a stupid idea, that if the monsters weren't hurting anyone, they should just let it go and enjoy the rest of their day. This was the first break they'd gotten since the Giant War- the first one they had to themselves, anyway. But Percy, being his heroic self, said he couldn't let it go, and that he "really, _really_ had to pee, Annabeth," so she let it slide. 

And the next thing she knows, there's toilet water shooting into the sky.

She curses as both she and the monster girl burst into the bathroom.

"Percy!" Annabeth growls, at the same time the other girl calls out, "Cardan!"

Annabeth is taken aback by the sight before her. The floor is flooded in about an inch of water that surely would soak through her Converse, if not for the little fact that Percy has diverted the stream away from her. The monster guy is glaring at Percy furiously from where he is sprawled in the corner, sopping wet, his tail lashing about around him.

"Cardan!" the girl exclaims again, taking a step forward. 

Annabeth is there in an instant, pressing her dagger against the girl's chest and growling, "Don't even think about it."

She halts instantly, hatred brewing behind her eyes, but before Annabeth can make any further news, she's hanging upside down, suspended by what seems to be— a large vine?

The girl bends downs to pick up Annabeth's fallen dagger, then rushes forward in the water, her movements creating sloshy sounds. She doesn't get farther than two steps before the water sweeps her off her feet, swirling underneath her to suspend her movement.

"Let her go, you dirty son of a bitch," Percy snarls, returning the other guy's glare just as fiercely. Annabeth appreciates that he doesn’t mention they’re together; no point in giving the enemy more motives.

"I think I’ll pass," the other guy, Cardan, spits out, alternating between glowering at Percy and sending concerned looks towards his girlfriend(?). “Release my wife at once.”

"I'll release her, but only if you release Annabeth."

Cardan sends Percy a hard look, but Percy doesn't back down. Annabeth can feel all the blood beginning to rush to her head, and she begins to feel faint. There’s a familiar murderous look in Percy’s eyes, and all she can do is choke out, “Percy, don’t do it...”

 _Plop_! The water makes an unsatisfactory sound as Annabeth is dropped onto the floor unceremoniously, and then a sigh of rushing water as it falls back onto the floor, releasing the other girl at the same time.

Percy is rushing to her immediately, helping her off the floor and willing her soaked clothes dry. Annabeth can hear the other guy, Cardan, muttering to his wife. Her clothes are also soaked, and her hair hangs in stringy wet strands around her heart shaped face, but her stare is nothing short of murderous.

"Who are you?" she demands, holding her chin up high.

"From where we're standing, you're in no position to be asking questions," Annabeth replies smoothly. "And give me back my dagger."

"You want it back?" the girl asks, twirling it around. Annabeth swears she can hear her blood boiling. That's Damasen's dagger, the one he gave to her before sacrificing his life for hers in Tartarus. It does not belong in that girl's hands, and it most certainly _does_ not deserve to be treated like a toy.

The girl surges forward, holding Annabeth's dagger out. Percy has Riptide out in the blink of an eye, catching the blade on his before twisting his hand to counter with another move. Annabeth can only watch as Percy and the other girl fight it out in the middle of the flooded bathroom, but even Annabeth must admit, the girl is skilled, blocking each of Percy's swings and countering with moves she's never seen before.

 _Clang_! Riptide clatters to the floor, and the girl presses Annabeth's bone dagger to Percy's neck triumphantly. Annabeth feels bile and a scream rising in her throat, her arm automatically stretching out towards him. She can't lose him now, not after everything they've been through.

Before the other girl can make a move though, there's a police officer barging into the bathroom. All four of them stand still, looking at each other and the police officer, unsure of how to handle the situation.

The officer looks confused, then reaches for his radio. Just before Annabeth is about to tackle him though, the other guy, Cardan speaks first.

"You will leave this bathroom and report to your superiors that everything in here is normal. You will instruct others not to enter this restroom and direct them elsewhere, and then you will forget what you have seen."

Annabeth watches, dumfounded, as the officer's eyes glaze over. He reaches for his radio, clicks it, then sighs, "Nothing in here. Must have been a false alarm," and walks out.

And then, Percy starts to laugh. Annabeth, Cardan, and the other girl all look on as her boyfriend doubles over in laughter, clutching his stomach.

"Percy-" He shushes her immediately, wiping his eyes as tears fall from them.

Annabeth clenches her fists, preparing for a fight. "What did you do to him?" Annabeth snarls, but to her surprise, the other girl looks just as shocked.

"I- I didn't-"

"No, no, I'm... ugh, I'm fine," Percy wheezes. Annabeth begs to differ. 

After a few uncomfortable moments, Percy finally gulps in some air and stands. "You don't need that," he says, gesturing to where Annabeth's dagger is held loosely in the other girl's hand. "But you do need to tell me how you disarmed me with that move. I haven't been beat that bad since Chrysaor."

Annabeth mutters under her breath, "Our sparring sessions beg to differ."

If Percy hears her, he makes no sign of it, because he turns to the other guy next and extends a hand out to shake. "I'm starting to think we got off on the wrong foot. So you guys aren't monsters? Or minor gods trying to ruin our day?"

Cardan accepts Percy's handshake, and Annabeth watches in amusement as his eyes bug out of his head when he becomes dry as soon as his hand makes contact with Percy.

"Not monsters," he confirms, blinking confusedly at his dry clothing. "And you? You are not a spy for an enemy of Elfhame?"

Percy wrinkles his nose. "What's an Elfhame?"

The other girl butts in, handing Annabeth's dagger back to her sheepishly. "Perhaps we should go talk somewhere else."  
________________________________________  
"We call it the Mist, over here," Percy explains, walking hand in hand with Annabeth.

"Mist," the other girl- who he's learned is named Jude- repeats, mulling it over.

So far, Percy's learned a lot about the couple he accidentally-but-also-purposely attacked in the Coney Island bathroom. Jude and Cardan come from Elfhame, a fairy world that mortals can also go to, and they're married. Percy imagines being married to Annabeth at this age. It seems nice. He still has a hard time wrapping his head around it though. So now he knows there’s: Greek gods, Egyptian gods, Norse gods, _and faeries_? The world seems to get crazier and crazier the older he gets.

Jude was raised here, in the regular world before being taken to the fairy world by Madoc, her parents' murderer and then she grew up there and met Cardan. And like him and Annabeth, they hated each other, until they grew to love each other. Also, Cardan has also been transformed into an animal and can confirm, it's not fun (Percy still has dreams where he's a guinea pig).

"Yup, and it's how the mortals don't see what we're actually doing. Most of them anyways. My mom and my friend Rachel can see through it. But you guys call it glamouring?" 

"Yes," Cardan (who has a tail! Percy thinks it's kinda cool) answers, from where his arm is slung over Jude's shoulder. "Jude here cannot do it, as she is also a mortal, but as High Queen of Elfhame, she has power over the land. You too have power over the land. I suppose you and Annabeth are the rulers of the mortal world?" Cardan pronounces Annabeth's name with space in between every syllable, like it's a foreign word he's testing out.

"Uh, no," Percy chuckles awkwardly. "Just the good ol’ water powers for me. And we don't really have rulers here. We have presidents, and the UK has a monarchy, and of course, there's the gods."

"Gods?" Jude repeats.

"Mhm," Annabeth chimes in. "They're deities, and also our parents. They're where we get out power from."

"What is your power?" Jude asks, cocking her head at Annabeth.

Annabeth frowns. "I don't have any powers. My mother is Athena, so all I was gifted with was wisdom and a Yankees cap that doesn’t even work anymore."

There’s a tinge of bitterness in her voice. Percy can tell she's embarrassed, but Jude doesn't seem to notice, or mock her at all. 

"I know what that's like," she replies. "To grow up in a world surrounded by powerful beings and having nothing. Let me guess. You have to fight twice as hard for your place at the table."

Annabeth shares a look with her then, and lets a slow smile spread across her face. "I think I like you Jude."

Jude smirks back at her, and Percy can tell they'd be a dangerous duo. Jude reminds him a little of Piper, fierce and strong.

"Hands off my wife, Annabeth," Cardan quips airily, drawing Jude closer into his side possessively. She pinches his side, drawing a yelp from him. "How much longer until we reach this pizza place? I crave pineapple on pizza."

Percy makes a gagging noise. "Cardan, you're officially gross and I hope Annabeth steals Jude away from you. Gods, who eats pineapple on pizza? That's just wrong."

Cardan sends him an equally scandalised look, turning his chin up so Percy can only look up his pointed nose. "I am a king, and I will not be criticized by a lowly mortal."

"Uh, I'm also half god, so I'm pretty sure I outrank you, dude."

"You do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do too."

They argue until they get to the pizza parlor, but Percy can tell it’s the start of something beautiful.


End file.
